1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to: a new type of fiber roller drafter for drafting strands or strips of fibers, for example, for subsequent yarn formation; a process for producing a drafted strand or strip or a wrapped yarn utlizing said drafter; and a drafted strand or strip or wrapped yarn produced therefrom. This invention permits filament wrapped yarn of sufficient elongation to be used as warp yarn in weaving, to be successfully produced directly from a strand or strip of card web. Making wrapped yarn directly from the card affords the advantages of elmininating conventional processing steps such as double-drawing, roving, spinning, rewinding, and slashing. Savings from eliminating said processing steps offsets the cost of the wrapping filament.
2. Description of Prior Art
Filament wrapped yarn is normally produced from expensive high production machines, but converter ring frames can also produce filament wrapped yarn, though at a much slower production rate. One of the advantages of wrapped yarn is its potential to eliminate sizing when used as warp yarn in weaving. After the original United States Department of Agriculture Southern Regional Research Center (SRRC) no-twist yarn system, as described in : Brown, Rober S., Salaun, Harold L., Jr., Louis, Gain L. Apparatus for Making No-Twist Yarn, U.S. Pat. No. 4,347,647, Sept. 7, 1982, Salaun, H. L., Brown., R. S., and Louis, G. L., No-Twist Yarn Made From Card Web, Textile Res. J. 50(2), 115-119 (1980), and Salaun, H. Jr., and Lewis, Gain L., "The SRRC no-twist yarn system", Journal of Coated Fabrics 10, 98-105 (1980); was developed, much effort was spent in refining the system to run at high speed and to produce a yarn with high elongation for fabric production. Many mechanical devices were designed and built for more effectively drafting a strip of card web into fiber strands, as for example described in Salaun, Harold L., and Lewis, Gain L., "An Improved SRRC no-twist yarn system", Textile Research Journal 53, 103-108 (1983).